Disposal of waste whether it be of human origin, from food preparation, from domestic animals, or from decaying plants and micro-organisms has, in the past, been treated as a natural process that can be accomplished effectively by those organisms present in the waste itself or those with which the waste will eventually come into contact during the natural treatment process. This approach sufficed in rural areas of low population density where small amounts of waste were exposed to decomposition. However, when high waste concentration and the use of man made facilities became the accepted mode of treatment in municipalities and on farms and waste consolidation in open toilets, lagoons or similar holding facilities became the norm in waste disposal, neither contact with soil organisms nor sufficient time for decomposition of the waste were available. The fecal organisms in human and animal waste had accomplished most of what they could in the intestine and were of little value in waste treatment facilities. All too soon it became apparent that holding facilities and treatment complexes were not functioning properly since noxious odors were present and incompletely decomposed waste was being discharged from the facilities.
Originally, most of the solutions offered to solve the problems of odor control, overloading of organic waste in existing facilities or treatment of special wastes were simply to expand existing facilities. Eventually, it was felt that a simpler and more effective method was to introduce bacteria of known functions into existing facilities to thereby enhance waste decomposition. Today many products are on the market which claim to aid or accelerate waste decomposition. Generally, these products are either enzymes, freeze-dried bacteria, fungi or various chemicals.
Of these techniques, the use of freeze-dried bacteria is especially appealing due to the fact that it minimizes the number of foreign substances which are to be added to the system being treated. However, it is well known that many bacteria die quickly if left dormant in dilute suspension or form spores that require time to germanate before becoming metabolically functional. For example, it is known that when freeze-dried bacteria are reactivated often as much as 95 percent, or higher, of the original bacteria die and are therefore of no significant assistance in breaking down or decomposing the waste products being treated. Therefore, a method of reactivating and sustaining bacterial viability in dilute suspension for long periods of time was sought. The instant invention provides such a technique, the advantages of which are obvious to those skilled in the art.